The art of selling is about making things happen; gaining agreement to move ahead with a deal or a commitment. Negotiation – even if it is subtle – is an inherent part of most sales environments. Earlier this month the 11th annual ‘Olympics’ for hagglebots was held. This is a competition for artificial intelligence software […]
How to say ‘No’ to clients and still have them buy
Have you ever heard the saying, “The customer is always right”? It makes sense, doesn’t it. The customer is the person who ultimately pays your bills. Without customers any business will grind to a stop. Even the world famous management consultant Peter Drucker has said: The purpose of a business is to create a customer […]
Understanding the emotional experience of clients
It’s often the case that customer satisfaction is measured by a survey that gives the level of satisfaction a numerical rating, like between 1 and 10. But emotions are not linear, so this form of measurement may be entirely misleading. Do you really know how to understand what your client is feeling? In a thought-provoking […]
Danger signs for likeability every Sales Manager should know about
Selling is an individual activity. Sure, sometimes a ‘team selling’ approach is appropriate, but even then it relies on each individual seller doing their part well. Because of this focus on individual performance it’s extremely important for a Sales Manager to keep an eye on the personal communication behaviours of their team. Most people in […]
How to ask clients the personal, direct questions you really need to ask
In a sales conversation sometimes it can be really difficult to ask the exact questions you need to. That was the situation facing a team of financial planners I recently spoke with. They were facing a particular segment of unengaged clients and they wanted to know how they could create more engagement and generate interest […]